Liberation

Liberating realisations:

1. that my reading speed in English is faster than average, and that my reading speed in Mandarin is slow and that’s fine. If I take the entire 40 minutes of my morning commute to read an article in my 读者 Du‘zheÂ’ “Reader”* magazine so be it. It is not a contest.Â’Â’ (Realisation gained from watching a stranger on the bus read a page of their paperback. I watched him mouth the words and move his finger under each word he read. He took the entire 10-minute trip to read one page.)
2. that it is pointless/misguided to expect others to miraculously, after listening to me ramble on about whatever Web 2.0 technology for half an hour, believe everything I say and want to be just as obsessed as I am with all this stuff. (Realisation gained from listening to Kathryn talk about Second Life on Saturday: “I am really into Second Life, and I am going to explain why but I don’t necessarily expect you to share my excitement.” Thank you Kathryn! As reported by Sue Waters.)
3. that I don’t have to take it personally when people react less-than-positively or somewhat guardedly to what I have to say about any of this Web 2.0 stuff. They are not putting me down (even if it sometimes feels like it), they may be overwhelmed by what I’m telling them, or disinterested, or thinking how this is yet another fad which will disappear if they just get on with whatever they were doing. (Realisation gained from listening to Trevor Bennett from ECU remind us of this during Kate‘s and my talk on Saturday at Barcamp. Thank you Trevor!)
4. that thanks to this whole Web and blogging thing I have made really wonderful connections with other people and it’s amazing! 🙂 /cheesy bit.
5. that I am often slow to realise good things and slow to understand how things work/are.

*读者 Du‘zheÂ’ “Reader” magazine is “a monthly compilation of multicultural reading material targeting a broad Chinese audience, [which] recorded a circulation of over 10 million as it celebrated its 25th anniversary” last year (reported by the China Media Project). I wonder if I can buy it in Perth. My copies are all from Sydney, where it is easily available, anywhere in Chinatown (thanks jl for bringing me a couple of new issues!). It’s light, often quite enjoyable, reading. 读者 Duzhe seems to have a blog. If my reading speed of print materials in Chinese is slow, on screen it’s worse…